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That’s not quite what I ordered!

The other day David was in a local restaurant having lunch with one of our Kenyan colleagues. The mixture of Kiswahili and English which we both now employ is often successful in restaurant settings but sometimes it fails-this was one such occasion. When the food came out, it was not what David had ordered. Faced with the choice of sending it back and waiting again or consuming it so they could leave on time, David decided that the latter was the better course of action.
So he ate it, but with a measure of bemusement.
We have been reflecting a lot recently on our life and work here in Kenya and David’s restaurant experience has proved a bit of a metaphor for what we are doing.

When we first arrived in Eldoret, we thought we knew what life would be like, especially on the work front. But things have been brought out which weren’t quite what we ordered. And like David in the restaurant we have been faced with a choice. Do we send it back or do we tuck in? We’ve chosen the latter option and so in addition to the borderlands peace work (including liaison with government offices) and supporting CBR’s work with children with disabilities in the community, we are now regularly preaching in rural parishes and have just run a retreat for Lay Readers.Even the weather has marshalled itself as a metaphor- heartfelt prayers for rain have been answered but not always in quite the way people envisaged as witnessed this week in the centre of Eldoret with cars underwater and here at home with rain cascading under the front door…..
If we’ve learned nothing else from our Kenyan friends, we have learned to be both grateful and adaptable!

7 thoughts on “That’s not quite what I ordered!”

It sounds like you are both doing such amazing work! I spent just two and a half weeks working in Tanzania in 2012 and that was an amazing challenge, but so rewarding. I can’t imagine how much more rewarding it must be to be living in such an amazing country and doing God’s work for a longer period.
I only comment because, it sounds like what you’re doing is similar to an amazing project called ‘Neema Crafts’ in Tanzania. It is incredibly inspiring as all of the products it produces are created by deaf and disabled Tanzanians in the local community who would otherwise have been shunned from society. I have included a link to their website below if you would like to see some of the amazing things they have achieved: http://www.neemacrafts.com/
All the best and God Bless! Bethan x

Thank you very much for the encouragement, Bethan.
We actually know some of the people involved at Neema Crafts as we were all together in Nairobi earlier this year for a conference- it’s such a small world isn’t it?
All the best to you too.

I am really sorry that Kenya is now trying to emulate Uganda and other countries by increasing its already harsh penalties for homosexuality. It is a complete myth that homosexuality is un -African and imported from the west or that it undermines family life and marriage. Kenyan MPs would be better occupied in combatting the rampant corruption in the country and working much harder for the poor and marginalised and in reducing the extreme gap between the rich few and the poor many.